If we truly knew the power of forgiveness, we would forgive everyone, right away. When we forgive others, we take away their power to make us angry, afraid and bitter. We gain back the power to be the people and the teachers that we want to be.

One day, a teacher criticized me for not doing something that was their responsibility and they did it in front of their class, who I also taught. They, obviously, were in the wrong (they can write their own version on their blog). I was so angry. I did talk with them later and we came to an agreement. Before that, I had to forgive them or I wouldn’t have been able to have that talk. Forgiving them freed me from the anger and allowed me to move forward towards a solution.

Forgiveness has the power to cut the strings controlling us and to take the blinders off our eyes. When we don’t forgive, we think we are keeping something from someone who doesn’t deserve it. In reality, we are keeping ourselves from freedom from that person, that event and the control it has over us. When we forgive, we let go of the burden we have been carrying around and we free ourselves.